"If there’s a world here in a hundred years, it’s going to be saved by tens of millions of little things. The powers-that-be can break up any big thing they want. They can corrupt it or co-opt it from the inside, or they can attack it from the outside. But what are they going to do about 10 million little things? They break up two of them, and three more like them spring up!"
- Pete Seeger, in YES! Magazine

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Praising an Employee, in Writing

The project: Write a letter of kudos to a city employee's supervisors

Time:
10 minutes

Why bother?
While researching in Santa Barbara, I met Cathy, a very helpful, gregarious, knowledgeable employee of the city's parks department. Sure, I thanked her for the information she'd provided me, but there's nothing like a little good news for supervisors about their employee's performance. Plus, in these belt-tightening times, you never know who an employer will let go. If a quick note like this can help someone who provides GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE stay on board, then that's an added bonus.

Worth it?
Yes.

Photo courtesy banlon1964 under Creative Commons License

Posted by JenPB at 9:17 PM

4 comments:

  1. StephanieMarch 3, 2009 at 9:13 AM

    That was so kind of you. Simple things like this can make an employee look great in an employer's eyes. Too often does good customer service and overall good work go underappreciated and even unnoticed. Very sweet!

    ReplyDelete
  2. StephanieMarch 3, 2009 at 9:15 AM

    Too often does good customer service and overall good work go under appreciated and even unnoticed. A simple gesture like this can really make an employer realize how good their employee is. How nice of you!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kristi MMarch 3, 2009 at 2:52 PM

    THANK YOU!
    Take it from someone that's been in Customer Service for over 13 years now, things like that REALLY DO make a difference. Now that I'm in the management side of things, I've received similar comments regarding my employee, and when things get rough, a positive note can make a big difference.

    ReplyDelete
  4. JenPBMarch 3, 2009 at 5:09 PM

    Here's the response I received from one of the supervisors:

    Thank you so much for your nice comments about Parks staff member Cathy (X). We think Cathy is one of our star performers, and we appreciate hearing from Park users about the terrific customer service she provides.

    Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to write to us,
    Supervisor N

    ReplyDelete

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